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Thread: Moving out for the first time

  1. #1
    Featured Member kandie_kitten's Avatar
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    Default Moving out for the first time

    So, I just got my first full-time corporate job (May college grad). I'm really excited, it's a great opportunity at a great place.

    The problem is, it's a small paycheck, only about $30k a year. Which is okay. I don't have any major expenses, with no one else to take care of, and I own my car.

    The problem is, I NEED to move out. I love my family, they're really supportive and terrific, but it's driving me crazy not to have my own space, ya know? I hate having to report where I'm going and when, asking permission to have my boyfriend over, etc.

    I'm in the Philly suburbs area; is there any feasible way I could move out with this salary? I'd have a roommate if I had no other option, but I really just want my own space. Stripping for cash isn't really an option right now (long story, and I was a god-awful stripper anyway).

    Any tips for moving out for the first time, or ideas to do it cheaply?

  2. #2
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Are you asking if you can live on $30,000 a year by yourself?

  3. #3
    Featured Member kandie_kitten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    No, more for general cost saving tips and any advice for moving.

  4. #4
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Ohhh, okay! Heh. Unfortunately that looks like a pretty damn decent salary to me right now and it looked like you were saying you didn't know if you could afford to move out and live by yourself on it.

    I would say to get your own place. Roommates are so not worth it. Wait until after you've got the place to furnish it, so you don't have as much to move. Furnish one room at a time. I'll try to think of more.

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    Featured Member kandie_kitten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Oh I'm sorry! I probably sounded like a brat!

    No, I know it's good money, especially since I'm just out of school. I'm just aving trouble finding an apartment for under $1200 a month. I'm trying to save a smuch as possible, so any tips for living cheaply and moving cheaply are appreciated.

  6. #6
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Ouch! That's what we pay in the middle of Hollywood! How come Philly's so expensive?

    As for living cheaply, the most important thing is to cook your own food. It's amazing how much people waste on restaurants, takeout, drive-thru, frozen dinners, and packaged food. Buying the raw ingredients and cooking your own meals will save you a small fortune!

  7. #7
    God/dess ahmeerah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    You're having trouble finding an apartment for under $1200? In Philly?

    Remember, it's just your FIRST apartment. At a 30K salary, don't expect a fabulous apartment.

  8. #8
    Featured Member teeth_of_the_hydra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Quote Originally Posted by Yekhefah View Post
    I would say to get your own place. Roommates are so not worth it. Wait until after you've got the place to furnish it, so you don't have as much to move. Furnish one room at a time. I'll try to think of more.
    Although I love and adore and want to lick Yek, I have to respectfully disagree with her opinion on roommates. I think roommates are well worth it, because you tend to be able to afford amenities that you otherwise could not. For example, I live in a 3br/2 bath house with a modern kitchen, new tile floors, W/D, central air, carport, landscaped yard, new wood deck, storage shed... basically everything except a pool. As much as I complain about Sarasota, my house rocks. My share of the rent is $450/mo + utilities. Prior to living here, I rented a tiny (like, really tiny. Miniscule. Minute. Infinitesimal.) studio aprtment for $420/mo + utilities, which did not have a new kitchen or a washing machine or basically anything but 4 walls, a ceiling, and an oddly-shaped bathroom. Utilities cost me about $25 more per month, on average, in this house, so altogether I'm paying $60 more per month for way more living space and much nicer amenities than I was before.

    Of course, I also like my roommates, and that makes all the difference. I do not recommend living with strangers, as you never know how the hell anything is going to turn out. I moved in with a complete stranger that I met through a classified, and he chased me around with a broken beer bottle on my second night in the apartment and threated to kill me Won't ever do that again! I also don't recommend having more roommates of the opposite sex than of the same sex, unless you're one of those people who doesn't like girls. I'm one of those people who doesn't especially like boys, so maybe my advice is biased.

    As for money saving tips, learn to cook, use compact flourescent lightbulbs, change your air filters frequently (if applicable), unplug appliances when you're not using them (blender, microwave, etc.), make sure none of your taps leak, make sure your windows are closed tightly when you're using the heat/AC, avoid using the heat/AC unless absolutely necessary, buy cleaning supplies and detergent at the dollar store (they usually have name brand stuff for way less than the grocery store does... I don't know why anyone wouldn't buy detergent at the dollar store!), buy things like toilet paper & paper towels on sale and/or in bulk, provided you have the space, refill your liquid soap dispensers and spray cleaners from a large refill-sized container, rather than replacing the dispensers, and buy your towels, rugs and linens from places like Ross and TJ Maxx, which tend to carry high-quality stuff in slightly weird colors or irregular workmanship.
    Drought was over. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.
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  9. #9
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Personality is definitely a factor in the roommate situation. Some people are more social, others need more privacy. I've always been territorial, obsessively neat, and protective of my peace and quiet; my freshman year of college, I dormed with my best friend and by the end of the semester, we were literally attacking each other with shoes. She transferred to another school after that one semester and we didn't speak for years after that (fortunately we're back in touch and best friends again).

    Only you know if you're the type that gets along well in a shared living space. Me, I can live very well and happily with pets and a romantic partner but not with anyone else. Roommates can be awesome or they can make you miserable.

  10. #10
    Featured Member kandie_kitten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    I need my own space. I am obsessively neat, am overall very quiet, and after 4 years of college cleaning up everyone else's mess, listening to them bring home strange guys in the middle of the night (I fully support one night stands, but my roomie brought home this 40 year old guy she met on the side of the road. Seriously. It was like the opening of a very bad horror movie) and having crazy loud sex (I love crazy loud sex as much as the next girl...but I also have respect for other people). My next roomie was the exact opposite, so prudish that if my boyfriend came over and watched TV with me, she screamed that I was being disrecpectful and acting like a whore. I also had the roomie who didn't believe in showering for weeks because she, "straightened her hair and didn't want to redo it".

    I ideally want my own place, so I can sleep openly in front of the tv if I want, be as fanatically clean as I want, eat and cook MY food and not have to worry about it goin gmissing, be naked when I want, have my boy over when I want, etc.

    I'm in a very odd area of Philly. It's like the great divide...go one block this way, it's gorgeous upscale stores, million dollar condos, etc. Go one block the other way, you're in THE worst area with the highest murder rate, where people literally take their car batteries into their home at night to keep them from being stolen and have 5 or 6 locks on their door. Hell, I was looking at apartments, and a STUDIO apartment with a bathroom shared with 3 other tenants sold for over $700,000.

    So I'd like to go a little outside, more Philly suburb. Where I am now is virtually perfect, within 5 miles of the train, much cheaper cost of living without the crime rates...but all of the Philly suburb areas, that are convenient for commuting, are expensive. Even the studio apartments around here run between $800-1000.

  11. #11
    Featured Member kandie_kitten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving out for the first time

    Sidebar...I think I could deal with the roomie situation if I at least had my own room, so it's something I'll look into. I don't like the idea of rooming with a friend, since I've seen so many friends have friendships fall apart living together.

    Any ideas on where to look for a roomie?

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